Can our heritage Joseph Strauss-designed Johnson Street bascule bridge be saved by three new Victoria City Councillors? Half of philistine Dean’s Team is history: Lynn Hunter replaced by Ben Isitt, John Luton replaced by Shellie Gudgeon; Philippe Lucas replaced by Lisa Helps

Joseph Strauss’ bascule bridge is shamefully neglected by the Fortinites

[‘Goyo de la Rosa’ photo]

THREE JOHNSON STREET BRIDGE PHILISTINES HIT THE ROAD

The bad news is that Dino got back in… somehow.

It can only be explained by reference to the odious NDP political machine, and will no doubt mean more high residential and commercial property taxes if he gets his Globalist agenda supported by the new trio.

But the good news is that half of his so-called ‘Dean Team’ went down: ex-MP Lynn Hunter and bike fanatic John Luton, both of whom supported his philistine plans to destroy the Johnson Street Bridge, are about to exit the political stage, thank you very much!

Ex-Green Party Councillor Candidate Philippe Lucas is also a Globalist Futurist who wanted to tear down the old bascule, so these losses are really a severe blow to the Mayor’s stimulus plans, I reckon.

But perhaps the biggest losers of the evening were the Greens, as their unofficial preferred Victoria Mayoral Candidate Steve Filipovic came in third, incumbent Victoria City Councillor Lucas lost his seat as did incumbent Luton (whose signs were bright green this year), and Linda Lisa McGrew, the only Councillor Candidate on the Open Victoria slate endorsed by the Green Party, did not get elected.

On the other hand, I believe that Steve Filipovic endorsed all three of the winning Councillor Candidates; Shellie Gudgeon, Lisa Helps and Ben Isitt, so that was prescient.

It is my fervent hope that the three new Councillors will challenge the whole new bridge project, and actually try to stop it as financially reckless.

Instead, the new Councillors should join forces with Councillor Young and provide a unified front to convince Councillors Madoff, Coleman, Thornton Joe and perhaps others to change their minds, and to save the old heritage Johnson Street Bridge.

I am particularly interested in seeing how Shellie Gudgeon does on Council, as counter to my published intentions, I decided at the last minute to vote for her, for all the classic counterintuitive reasons…

As a publican already holding a number of liquor licenses in her restaurant businesses, she would not be able to vote on any new liquor license applications without finding herself in a conflict of interest, and she will therefor have to recuse herself in those instances.

All three of these new Councillors are so-called ‘harm reductionists’ so there is really no change on the Council in that regard.

I met and spoke to Shellie Gudgeon about ‘harm reduction’ not long after her campaign office was opened up.

We briefly shared with each other our stories of loved ones in our families lost to overdoses.

So it wasn’t long before we agreed to disagree on the best social health solutions to these nagging problems, but I know her heart is in the right place, and I hope she and other ‘harm reductionists’ eventually come to reject the ‘harm reduction’ nonsense as based on junk science.